Frieda Martselos

After-care is a crucial component of recovery. The NWT is lacking in this area of service. Will the Minister consider investing in three after-care facilities that are connected to the mental health workers within Health and Social Services?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For my Member's statement today, I will be joining my colleagues on the topic of addictions and mental health. Specifically, I will be focusing on the after-care component of addictions services. In a Member's statement last March, I spoke about the need for more after-care services to be made available locally to the people of the NWT. That's because there is currently an inefficient amount of after-care services being offered to NWT residents upon their return home from treatment centres in the south.

Mr. Speaker, when individuals return to their home communities from...

Mr. Chair, I have concerns with the way the HR policy is being implemented across different departments. We hear one thing from one department, from the main department, and then you have another set of rules for another department. The departments have control over whatever they are going to do. I thought HR policies are unified across the board and that P1s with qualifications take priority. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, we have been talking about affirmative action here for quite some time. I thought that all departments followed the same process and the same terms of reference. I am just wondering if affirmative action applies in this case of P1s or P2s or whatever it is. This department seems to use the term "Indigenous governments" very often. Every other sentence is about Indigenous governments, Indigenous governments. You have to talk the walk, and I don't see that talk the walk when it comes to P1s. Are they just afraid of setting up our own Indigenous people of P1s, setting them up for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is on page 316. If you add up the headquarters in North Slave, it increased by two, and the South Slave increased by two in employees. Then you said that the equity lease employees were eliminated at regional centres. These equity lease employees, were they term employees?

Addressing the mental health and after-care component is important for all people in recovery. Would the Minister consider walk-in clinics with mental health staff readily available for the public?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister share with the House the expectations of the addictions recovery survey being done? What outcomes are expected from this survey? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That was a big explanation on something I never asked about, really. I wasn't worried about the other section. I was just making a general comment. Anyways, first of all, the travel on page 347, last year, actuals were $250,000, and now we are up to $566,000. Is that just to cushion the budget, or what is that? I just want to know exactly what that is. I want my answers to be very precise and short because we used up over half of my time just with that one question, please, Madam Chair.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister ensure that all of the concerns our Indigenous staff brought forward in the workplace assessment are addressed and that our Indigenous staff are heard? Positive solutions must address these staff issues to ensure rehabilitation of our incarcerated people will properly take place. Does the Minister agree with that statement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Will the Minister consider reinstating some of the programs that previously helped inmates rehabilitate back into society? Can inmates once again do activities such as cutting grass, shovelling snow, or work regular jobs during their stay, or attend Aurora College to advance their education?